Health Promoting Schools

Link to Health Promoting Schools-Public Health South

Check out the Case Study Jo O'connor and I presented at a recent meeting of Agencies in Schools meeting.



What is a Health Promoting School?

A health promoting school is a place where all members of the school community work together to provide students with integrated and positive experiences and structures that promote and protect their health.
This includes both the formal and informal curricula in health, the creation of a safe and healthy school environment, the provision of appropriate health services and the involvement of the family and wider community in efforts to promote health.
World Health Organisation, 1996

Health Promoting Schools and Road Safety.

Getting to and from school safely-MOE

Educators care about the safety, health, and happiness of their students. By participating in strategies such as RoadSense-schools are given the opportunity to address concerns that may include:

• students arriving safely to and from school.
• students beoming more active to and from school.
• increasing family involvement.
• rising transportation costs.
• the prevalence of childhood obesity.
• sustainbility issues.

What is Health Promotion?

The Ministry of Education's "Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum" document says that:

"Health Promotion is a process that helps create supportive physical and emotional environments in classrooms, whole schools and communities".

The health promotion process requires the involvement and collective action of all members of the wider school community - students, staff, parents and caregivers and other community members.
By engaging in health promotion, students and teachers can:

• Come to understand how the environments in which they live, learn, work, and play positively affect their personal and societal wellbeing;
• Develop the personal skills that empower them to take action to improve their own well being and that of their environments;
• Help to develop supportive links between the school and the wider community;
• Help to develop supportive polices and practices to ensure the physical and emotional safety of all members of the school community.Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum, Ministry of Education, page 32

Helpful Links for Healthy Schools:

• Team Up-Lets get physical.
• SPARC
• Active Schools.
• Healthy Eating
• Mission On